


Turn Around (Think Too Much)

by Jen425



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers, Power Rangers (Boom! Comics)
Genre: (and aftermath sort of), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, F/M, Foreshadowing, Introspection, I’m sorry, POV Alternating, Shattered Grid, So much angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 18:55:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19751767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Why wait for a tomorrow we might not get?(Because you don’t even have tonight.)





	Turn Around (Think Too Much)

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the realization that the allusions to Tommy’s death in the GGPR preview would logically still have happened in the original Shattered Grid version of the scene.
> 
> So Kim comes back because who know if she’ll have another chance, if they’ll have a tomorrow.
> 
> And Tommy says “you’re lucky to even be alive” moments before Drakkon kills him.

_Stupid so stupid that was stupid why didn’t you kiss him you_ wanted _to kiss him_ _you love him_ _why didn’t you kiss him you don’t know if you can later really not when you’re superhero soldiers so_ **_why didn’t you kiss him_ ** _?_

Kimberly very much meanders home, not really wanting to go, thoughts in tune with her muttered words.

“I should have kissed him,” she mutters. “I _wanted_ to kiss him.”

So what had stopped her, really?

She’s afraid, that’s what, afraid of losing him, and, in so many ways, she could lose him.

But… even if she doesn’t do anything, she could still lose him, and she…

“I want to kiss him,” she says, out loud. “I _want_ to kiss him…”

She wants something she can keep, even if everything goes wrong, tomorrow. Even if Drakkon or Rita or who knows what other horror pulls them apart.

“Tommy,” she whispers, turning around. She just _knows_ that it has to be now…

  
  


_Stupid that was stupid you know better than that Tommy Oliver you should have just given her space even if she’s so beautiful and so fun and god that movie was terrible but it was okay because she was there and_ _you love her_ _and stupid stupid stupid why did you rush her why are you always so damn_ **_stupid_ ** _?_

These are the thoughts running through Tommy’s head on repeat, as he walks away.

“Awwwwwkward, Oliver,” he mutters. “Why did you have to rush that?”

Because he rushes into everything. Because it’s a miracle he’s still alive, with how often he rushes into things.

Honestly, how hasn’t his stupidity just put him out of his misery, yet? Tommy makes a noise somewhere between a sigh and a groan.

“Okay, stop it,” he tells himself. “In another reality out there, _somewhere_ … you probably did fine. If you can be Drakkon, some version of you _has_ to be smooth. Or at least better than you—”

“Tommy,” a voice growls. Tommy doesn’t even have the time to fully spin around.

“Huh?” He exclaims. “Who—”

Drakkon. Pain.

And sudden, clear understanding, even as everything pains, and Drakkon leaves, and Kimberly is next to him…

“It’s okay, Kim…” he tries to explain. “‘So…”

Darkness, and then Green.

(It always comes back to Green.)

  
  


_Too late you were too late you should have kissed him should have stayed with him why didn’t you_ **_save_ ** _him but it’s too late you were too late you should have kissed him you were too late why didn’t you save him you were too late to late too too_ **_late_ ** _and why why why_ **_why???_ **

The thoughts echo around her head, and she moves on auto pilot.

“Alpha,” You says. “Come in, please.”

_“Yes, Kimberly?”_ Alpha asks.

“Teleport me and Tommy to the Command Center,” she manages to choke out. “Now, he’s… he’s dying. And the other person, in the alley, she… hurry.”

Pink light takes her away, still clutching Tommy’s limp hand in hers.

She collapses, as Tommy is taken from her, barely hears Trini’s gasp, just… heartbroken.

She’s… she still might be too late.

But she can’t get like this, especially not when there’s still a chance, she helps the person that she _can_ help, the other Pink Ranger.

She sits next to Pin for hours, watching Tommy on the viewing globe, as everyone arrives. They all think he’s dead, but she just _can’t_ accept it.

“We don’t know anything, yet,” she says.

In the end, it’s all for nothing, and perhaps that’s even worse.

“We all have to grieve,” Jason says.

She already is.

  
  


_Do something help her help them all stop him you have to try why are you trapped watching is hell what have you done to deserve this you’re sorry for everything this is necessary but it’s not right please keep going they can do it you believe in them but_ **_will it be enough?_ **

(It’s not.)

These are Tommy’s thoughts, as he watched. He watches everything, in tune with the fractured multiverse.

All he can do is watch. Not interfere, not yet. Perhaps not ever, destined to float here, when Drakkon falls.

The Emissaries tell him that that is most likely.

He hopes so, if he’s honest.

He watches. He watches his team-friends- _family_ try to save his body, watches them mourn. He watches Jason cry and Kimberly almost break and Billy’s loss and Trini’s pain and Zack, watches Zack apologize to his grave.

Kimberly, he watches her most of all. He thinks about fading away in her arms, and he almost smiles.

But, of course, his team isn’t down for long. They never are. Or else he would have killed them, a year ago.

He watches, because it’s all he can do, and he prays that he can succeed.

And then he watches seven years of Drakkon’s perfect world play out, hating every minute of it.

But you can’t keep him down for long, either.

“The barrier is weakening.”

“Now is your chance.”

He takes it.

(But we aren’t there, quite yet.)

  
  


_Be strong you have to be strong everyone is counting on you and there’s a legacy that you don’t understand and haven’t become and you have to keep going or Drakkon will win just keep going like you always have he would want you to keep fighting you have to keep fighting you have to fix this come on come on stand strong strong_ **_stronger!!!_ **

This is what Kimberly tells herself, over and over, to keep herself going.

It’s what she has to do.

Being a superhero isn’t all fun and games, after all. Of course it keeps taking people from her. Because that’s her life and her luck.

“You can never truly get back what you lost,” Jen explains.

She can’t save him. She _couldn’t_ save him.

So she had to save others, the other Rangers.

Too many look at her like she’s an idol, a hope in dark times. Too many, she knows, will be disappointed by the truth. She’s human, seventeen years old, and she’s failed.

But she never admits that. She can’t.

She does her jobs. Because she has to. And then the final battle comes.

“That… was awesome,” she says. Jason smiles, sadly.

“Thanks,” he says. “Lauren helped me write it.”

“Remind me to hit you guys up,” Kimberly says, smiling at Lauren. “For my next history speech.”

Jason needs to lead the ground troops, and he wants _her_ to pilot the Megazord. Tommy’s megazord. And Kimberly…

“The Pterodactyl isn’t even a _part_ of that,” she says, tucking a strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear.

“I know,” Jason says, and Kimberly looks back at him, at what he has in his hands.

Oh.

“Thank you,” she says, and she can feel the tears streaming down her face but this is the most genuine smile she’s felt since that night. She takes the Dragon Dagger from Jason, feels the armor form around her suit, posing her, as transformation does…

And she hugs Jason, tightly, still crying and smiling.

The next day is the battle.

They lose.

  
  


_You love love them you love them you won and you’re together and things will be fixed but will they still be with you and will you still be with them oh you can hope and you love love_ **_love…_ **

These are their thoughts, as reality is reborn. As they kiss and place their hands on their hearts and imagine what can be.

“Tommy!”

“Huh?” Tommy asks. “Who—”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @flaim-ita


End file.
